Stand by to get riled up. This video from John Stossel's show last night, Illegal Everything, features shocking stories about crazy American laws, and also a great Joel Salatin interview.
- The part about the California health food store raid at Rawsome Foods begins around 16:50 with this statement, “Who decides what you eat? You? Turns out, no.”
- I thought John Stossel did a great job exposing this kind of bull, but his statement about drinking unpasteurized milk being “ridiculous” made me want to slam the screen. He made it very clear how uninformed he is on this issue. I wonder if he ever eats peanut butter, salads, or raw broccoli, as these are just as risky as raw milk. (Read more posts about raw milk, including info on safety issues.)
- Joel Salatin's part begins at about 18:55: “When a government gets between my lips and my throat, I call that an invasion of privacy!” My favorite Joel Salatin statement: “Life is risky, you can die from it! Ultimately you and I should get to choose our risk.”
- Note: I turned it off at 27:50 where the story began about whether or not it should be legal to sell sex.
D. says
Kelly, even though it may be something you don’t agree with (I don’t either), you shouldn’t have turned off the video just because there was something that might have been offensive. This is the problem we face – people don’t want to hear something so they don’t listen to the facts. The fact is, whether we like it or not, people have been either giving away or selling sex since the beginning of time. It’s right there in your Bible. And in states like Nevada it’s a huge part of their economy, which in turn effects the national economy to some degree. We ALL need to be aware of the forces at work and need to be asking hard questions (although we rarely get answers) to the reasoning behind why it’s legal to sell sex in some states, but it’s illegal for kids to sell lemonade. Our lawmakers (CONgress) needs a complete and thorough overhaul. It would appear a revolution is the only thing left.
Kelly the Kitchen Kop says
Yeah, but my time is so limited these days I really have to pick and choose what I do with it, and that wasn’t going to make the cut!
D. says
My time is extremely limited every M-F during the workday. I get snippets of time here and there is all. That’s the nice part about watching a vid – I can put it on hold and watch a couple of minutes here and there. But I still feel that not watching the whole vid is denying facts that DO exist, whether we like them or not. It all has an economical impact as well as a moral impact. To tell you the truth, that part of the vid is not at all what I was expecting.
Melissa @ Dyno-mom says
D. I think Kelly is well within her rights to determine what she sees as offensive and what she chooses not watch or not watch. I also find the topic offensives regardless of economic impact. But what I think of the topic doesn’t matter because I am not the arbiter of other people’s thoughts and I don’t get to dictate what they choose to do with their time. Or not do; as the case may be.
D. says
Yeah, everything seems to be about money these days.
My other favorite guy (although I rarely even watch tv news programs) was Judge Napolitano. His show was taken off air because he openly supported Ron Paul. (Ha, his show was off air for a week before I even knew about it!). But, that’s exactly what will happen to Stossel if he doesn’t report things the way “they” want it reported (I’m surprised he got this one on air) but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t KNOW the truth for himself. He obviously knows it’s wrong to stop little kids from selling lemonade, etc., so now all we have to do is make him aware of the raw milk/small farmer situation and he’ll likely be on board with it personally, even if he can’t actually SAY it on the squawk box. I’m waiting for one of those news tv doods to actually have the guts to report on the real laws being broken by our police these days. Lots of stuff on youtube about that. Especially the stuff about people using their cell phones to video what happens during an arrest, etc. It’s really disgusting to watch. Not hard to pick out the real criminals on those clips.
If ONLY misinformation on foods and raw milk were the biggest lies they’re telling . . .
I spend as much time as possible these days at *you tube* watching the Judge, Stossel, Milton Friedman, G. Edward Griffin and a couple of others who are onto the games being played by our gubment – some of them have been onto it for many years because none of this *taking our rights away* stuff is “new” to the gubment, only to the public (sheeple). It’s been in the planning (covert) stages for decades.
Heather (not the same Heather!) says
I’ve watched Stossel for about 20 years. I tend to think he’s the “token” libertarian at whichever network he’s working for–and they often stick him with “consumer” reporting, for good or ill. He reports on tons of subjects–no way he can research them all properly–and he’s constrained by the editorial policies of the companies he’s worked for. Do you honestly expect ANY mainstream media source to allow any honest reporting on food or pharmaceuticals? Their profits come from advertising. Who’s buying the ads? Follow the money.
D. says
I disagree that “it’s totally his style”. I think John Stossel is just in the beginning phases of learning all this stuff. I’ve watched a few of the vid’s he’s done (the ones at youtube) and it would appear that he, like everyone else, had to start somewhere with finding out all this stuff about how our gubment is lying, cheating and conniving us at every turn.
Do you know everything about everything? Didn’t you have an “aha” moment many, many times on your travels to better eating and better health? I know I sure as heck did – – and still do.
Maybe instead of trashing Stossel we should all send him emails or whatever to try to help him understand how raw milk is not dangerous and is better for us (raw milk = my bovine wine, and raw milk = immune system nirvana) and that YES we want to farm like our grandfather’s did, meaning smaller and more workable farms (acreage-wise), as well as not raising 1,000’s of animals at a time, but smaller numbers with better health, etc.
Jeanmarie says
I used to be a fan of John Stossel, until he trashed organics. No, he wasn’t criticizing Big Organic for pushing for so many loopholes that the USDA organic standards started to become meaningless, but he thought organic agriculture was stupid. The line that I remember is, “Why would I want to farm the way my grandfather did?” Or maybe it was great-grandfather. His lab tests showed some pesticide residue in some organic produce somewhere, as if that discredits all organic farmers everywhere. If anything, it shows what sloppy work he does, and also that toxins are persistent in the environment and affect even those trying to farm without them. If anything, that argues for more widespread adoption of organic farming standards and restrictions on the use of toxic chemicals. But his work provided “cover” for people who didn’t want to take the organic movement seriously.
I’m glad Stossel is now speaking up for food freedom, but I’m not surprised he makes ill-informed slams against raw milk. That is totally his style.
Sally O'Boyle says
One of my favorite John Stossel shows and my all-time favorite Joel Salatin quote (“between my lips and my throat”). If we own our bodies, we get to decide what to put in them and what to do with them as long as we don’t hurt anyone else.
Maryjane says
One thing Mr. Stossel failed to mention (at least in the first 27 minutes) is the power of greed behind many of the laws and regulations. Follow the money! If we knew the amount of hidden taxes we all pay that follow from licensing and regulatory fees, we would probably all be ready for another American Revolution.
It makes me want to open up a lemonade stand at the end of my driveway. Or maybe a raw milk stand!
D. says
I don’t think he HAD to mention the money connection. I think he was making it abundantly obvious that he understood it and that’s the message he was sending to his viewers. The money angle and the “rotten laws” angle.